Nathan Parker, “Chrome Defender,” and Tim Willis, “Hacker Philanthropist,” said that since Google introduced a $50,000 reward for the persistent compromise of a Chromebook in guest mode last year, it’s had no successful submission.

A persistent compromise on a Chromebook in guest mode would be one in which an attacker’s code sticks around on the device even after it’s rebooted. Such an attack would rear its head again in subsequent guest-mode sessions.

Since “great research deserves great awards,” Google says it’s putting up a standing six-figure sum, available all year round: no quotas, no maximum reward pool.

Google added unwanted software download warnings to its Safe Browsing service in August 2014 to give users a heads-up when software was doing something sneaky – like switching your homepage or other browser settings to ones you don’t want, piggybacking on another app’s installation, or collecting or transmitting private information without letting a user know, among other things.

Now, it wants to reward those who find a way to get nastyware past Safe Browsing.

It’s got details on its reward program page, including that it will shell out $1,000 for a high-quality report of a Download Protection Bypass.

Post navigation

About the author

Lisa has been writing about technology, careers, science and health since 1995. She rose to the lofty heights of Executive Editor for eWEEK, popped out with the 2008 crash and joined the freelancer economy. Alongside Naked Security Lisa has written for CIO Mag, ComputerWorld, PC Mag, IT Expert Voice, Software Quality Connection, Time, and the US and British editions of HP's Input/Output.